Policy alerts, briefs, letters & papers

The Center for Health Policy and Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School produces a quarterly newsletter entitled “Disability Issues”. The newsletter, which has been published for 25 years, discusses current issues surrounding disabilities in Massachusetts and beyond. The newsletter includes articles, information briefs, Q&A’s and more.

The Hawaii Medicaid Infrastructure Grant produced a 2 page brief describing the need for Medicaid Work Incentive Coverage (MWIC) in Hawaii. The brief also identifies coverage groups and individual eligibility.

This policy primer focuses on consumer-directed care for people with physical and mental disabilities. Although the primer is targeted to an Arizona readership, people in other states should find much of the content useful. Sections related to Consumer-Directed include definitions, history, factors driving expansion, challenges, liability, managed long-term care, and other policy and practice issues.

States are increasingly interested in the individual budget model for older Medicaid beneficiaries as a mechanism to improve responsiveness of benefits to beneficiaries’ needs and preferences and to increase their ability to remain outside or leave nursing homes. This report describes 10 operating individual budget model programs that serve older persons and identifies four areas of program design that are of particular importance to the success of the individual budget model.

This Issue Brief by the Alliance for Health Reform provides a short overview of the Cash & Counseling program. Sections include How the program came about, Access, health outcomes, and satisfaction with service, Five steps in getting started, Cost comparisons, Outstanding issues, Fast facts and Expert sources.

CMS awarded Money Follows the Person awards to 17 states and another 21 states may receive awards in the near future. Supporting individuals in institutions to move to the community is a critical component of MFP. Transition coordination, relocation coordination, supports coordination and case management are terms often used to describe this complex activity. This brief reviews optional targeted case management services, 1915(c) home and community based waivers and administrative activity.

Part of the Wisconsin QA/QI grant was to develop a framework to evaluate long-term care services. The framework was based on desired personal-experience outcomes. Once desirable outcomes were recorded, they were used as benchmarks for quality management and outcomes measurement.

This brief recognizes the issues that face home care workers – including low wages, difficult work, and few, if any, benefits. At the same time, demands for home health care are increasing. This document, written on behalf of the Service Employees International Union, advocates on behalf of home health workers to raise wages in order to encourage participation in a workforce that assists Illinois vulnerable populations.

Legisbrief is a briefing papers that offers important issues of the day. This volume provides an overview of new ways to help residents of nursing homes who want to return to their own homes but still receive services. The federal New Freedom Initiative awards grants to help states find ways to enable nursing home residents to use community-based care instead.

Putting innovative research to work in the policymaking process takes tenacity and understanding on the part of researchers and lawmakers. This report offers a four-stage framework to support effective use of research in health policymaking and improve communications between researchers, state policymakers and program administrators. Review a case study from Massachusetts plus communication strategies and key practical lessons on understanding, developing, implementing, and evaluating policy.